During
my long life and many years of contact with many kind of animals, both at home
and in nature, I am absolutely convinced, that basic requirements, basic
priorities are exactly the same for "big and small" animals including
humans. And the most important requirement it is to have an own territory, own
space, own environment in which one hopes to leave peacefully without
interference by the others.

The problem is, that several hundreds years ago, we
forcefully and against their will, removed the canaries from their own
territory. We transplanted them into our environment, which was completely alien
to them. In order to keep them less or more happy, we created for them the new
environment, their new own territory – the cage.

Their previous surroundings, on the Canary Islands in
Atlantic Ocean, were vast fields of, trees and abundant fresh air with easy
access to plenty of grass seeds, berries and fruits. Over their heads was mostly
blue sky with bright light of warm sun and at night starry sky. Now, it is a
cage with some kind of wooden structure called roof and four walls all over
mostly wooden or from wire and again wooden or metal floor under the feet. Very
often they do not have even the sand, so important for the birds well being.

Whatever material is used to construct the cage – the
cage should be as big as possible. It should be a minimum of about 60cm
(24") x 40cm (16") x 40cm (16") for one single bird. Majority of
people having a canary bird has only one singing bird for pleasure of its song
and for companion. They keep their winged friend in a cage constructed mostly
from wire, very often of elaborated shape, standing on some of the furniture or
hanging on a special stand. The bird in its cage can be moved from one place to
the other, to the place were is more sunshine, or fresh air, as a balcony or a
yard.

During the night the cage can be and should
be covered, if in the same room lights are kept long after a sunset. The birds
need quite a lot of rest and sleep. In general it is no problem with a single
bird kept as a companion. Their owners have only one or two birds are very continuous
to give them as much care as possible. The only remainder is, for single bird
keepers, have the cage as big as possible. The birds like very much to fly a bit
or at least stretch their wings, so for that reason the cages should be as large
as you have room for. Preferably they should be wide enough for the birds to
move freely to different perch levels. Tall narrow cages are not recommended
because birds tend to move laterally and not vertically. Your cage should be
large enough for your bird to express its natural inclinations to move around,
to flap its wings and to preen without touching the sides of the cage.

The owners of pet canary will buy the cage
in a pet shop where they will find quite a variety of wire cages with all necessary
"furniture" like perches, water and seeds containers even some plastic
toys for birds. In the same pet shop one can buy a ready-made packet of canary
seeds, some tonics claiming to improve quality of singing. One will get also
general advice regarding general care. And if everything will go, as it should,
the new owner and his canary will live happily together for many years to come.

It seems strange, but lonely bird will
develop quite often a strong affection to its owner, and usually it is strong mutual
affection. Majority of people has one or two canaries, male canaries, to enjoy
companion and song. They do not read books about canaries except maybe a small
brochure found in nearly every pet shop. If they have some problem with their
pet, they go back to ask the shopkeeper for help. Luckily, it happens once only,
when they experience first molding season and can’t understand why the canary
stops to sing. We will talk about a bit later

It is a bit different story if one would
like to breed canaries and in particulars German Rollers. It is not so easy to
find a good breeding cage in a pet shop. The sizes are rather too small,
finish crude and for the reason, which I can’t understand, the sand-drawers
are without sides. I can’t say if it is so every where, but it is so in
Sydney.

In my opinion, the best option, it is to
build a cage according to own specification, having in mind the best possible
comfort for the bird.

A rectangular cage is preferable. A wooden
box-type cage with a wire front only is the most practical. All wire cages can
leave the bird exposed to the weather elements like cold droughts, wind or too
much sunshine. In a case of a single bird in a wire cage, it is no problem to
move a cage to a different position. But breeding cages are in their permanent
position. Customary, the breeding cages are builds as a double cage, or as it is
called a two-hole cage. There are quite sound reasons to have a double cage,
which has removable partition in middle. I will explain later the advantage to
have such a cage.

At
the moment we establish that our housing for a canary should be rectangular,
wooden, double cage, with wire fronts only, it is basically a standard among the
canaries' breeders. But size of the cage is up for discussion.

As we said at beginning, the
canaries were removed by us from the vast fields with abundant fresh air, so we
should give them at least a cage as big as possible. We will never be able to
give them back, what they lost forever.

It is a double hall cage build by me.
It has removable front and removable partition.

The general size of the smaller box cage (a
single breeder) is 45 cm. (18’) long by 30 cm (12’) high and 30 cm. (12’)
deep. Double breeders are generally 90 cm. (3’) in length with the other
dimensions the same as above.

The bigger the cage the more room to fly
the bird will have and the better the bird will feel. Thomas Velluer who runs
The Haartz Roller Canary page on Internet said, that the current opinion in
Germany is that a cage for a single bird should not be smaller than about 60 cm.
(2’) long, 38 cm. (15") deep and 38 cm. (15") high. In a cage like
this the bird can really fly. The cages mostly sold in pet shops force the
canary to hop from perch to perch only.

Assuming,
we build a cage according to our specification, we need to provide furnishers to
the bird quarters. The essential cage fittings consist of perches, seed-hoppers,
and water and grit containers and clips to hold mineral block and green. Also
very important part of functional cage is a sand-drawer. It needs to have sides
of 1 cm. by 1 cm. dimensions. It should be snag fitting and at the same time
must be easily removable together with its contents, without spilling the sand.

Perches are the only one, which need to be of specific
shape and size. Perches should be made of softwood and should be of oval shape,
about 1 cm. across. It is best to vary the size of these a little, and even a
shape as well, but never use round perches, as these will cause corns on the
bird’s feet. It is handy to have a complete duplicate of these perches so that
can be replaced without delay, leaving plenty of time for cleaning of those
removed. My perches oval in shape have longitudinal cut in the front part and
the cut fits over the downward wire and rest on the crossbar. The rear end of
the perch has a nail driven in and the nail enters the back wall of the cage.
Place perches in such a way that the birds' droppings won't contaminate food or
water.

And here again we need to make such perches
on our own, because nearly without exemption, the perches sold in pet shops are
round, to small in size, and recently they are sold made from plastic or
overlaid with sandpaper!

Can
you imaging discomfort and suffering of a tiny bird’s feet having scabby
sandpaper under them? The idea of such sandpaper lining it is to clean the feet.
The bird’s feet are becoming dirty with feces if the floor of the cage is filed
with some cat litter or covered with a newspaper. It is extremely lazy way of
keeping the cage’s floor clean. But more important it is very bad for a bird.
The sand is a must for birds, mostly for seedeaters. It plays enormous role in
crushing the seeds. Without sand the birds will have a problem with digestion.
For this reason a lot of people buys grit and gives it in special containers.
Personally, I never used the grid. I was and still I am using the sand. But in a
past I was using the sand from the beach It had a lot of tiny shell grid in it.
Nowadays our live deteriorated so much that collecting the beach sand in many
places is forbidden. If we like it or not, we are more and more restricted in
our activities, very often without realizing it.

The
most important role played by sand is helping in digestion.

The sand helps also with cleansing the feet. A bird
achieves also cleaning the feet by bathing in a water. So it is our duty to
supply water for bathing at least every second day. It can be done by putting
into a cage a plastic or glass container with about two centimeters of water in
it. The birds love bathing. They perform their ablution very vigorously. They
splash the water all over. The are very messy bathers. For these reason a
plastic container with transparent walls, which hangs outside the cage, is
supplied. The bird enters its "bathhouse", splash the water against
the walls without fouling the sand. It is handy to have such bathing facilities
for every cage. It makes our morning servicing far quicker.

Seed hoppers vary in type and size, and it does not matter
which type we choose, but preferably, they should be all the same as it makes
favorable appearance of the cages’ assemble or the birds’ room if we are
lucky to have one.

It is useful to have well functioning strong holding clips
to grip cattle-fish bone or greens.

Perches, seed-hoppers, water, grit containers and clips to
hold mineral block and green. The drawers full of good sand and plastic
bathhouses – those items are necessary equipment to make our birds happy in
its new environment. All this items constitute a well-outfitted house, if you
like to use that human expression. The quality and amount of that equipment make
our duty easier. Very often I found that if I must buy something – the
cheapest is not exactly cheaper.

Basically that is all so far as the birds’ housing
requirements are going. It is a good start to have a cage before a bird. We are
nearly ready to bring our new friends home, but before we will do it, lets think
where we will keep the cages. In a case of one, single canary kept in an
ornamental wire cage it doesn’t matter. But if we want to breed the birds and
we have two or mostly four double cages, it is becoming a bit more complicated.
Not every member of our family would like to be with those birds all the time.
What is even more important, the birds are also not exactly keen to be with
every member of our dwellings, but they do not know how to express their
protest.

Whatever will be decided, to have the cages in one of our
common room, or we will be able to have a spare room, which we can designate as
a bird room, it should be planned in advance. Some will have an opportunity to
have a special shed or small house for birds only. It would be the best, but
still require planning. It cans also a lot to be said about situation of the
bird room or house. Should the windows face east or west south or north, but we
will talk about a bit later. At the moment we are happy to have the cages and
some kind of space for the cages, the best kind of space we have been able to
afford.

Both pictures
of the birds' rooms are not mine. I found them on the internet several years
ago. If the owners of the birds' rooms would like to have their names to be
mentioned : e-mail me please.

In the breeding room the practical side of the venture should
be fully considered. Any fancy cages, while very much in place in a sitting or
drawing rooms, are quite out of place in the breeding room. The cages, wooden
boxes, double breeders with removable partition between the holes, should be
harmonious in their construction and all finishing details. In this way, the
bird room looks neat and tidy. The same applies to drinkers, seed hoppers and
all utensils – same shape, same size and same color.

Well-arranged and equipped bird room is an envy of every
canary's breeder.

We are really nearly ready to bring our birds in, but before
we will do so, let talk first about feeding. It would be not so mach important
to have a long talk about canary’s food if we want to have one singing bird.
In that case, one seed hopper in the cage should always be kept filled with a
good canary seed mixture. For the pet canary, packet seed is to be preferred.
Some brands have seeds specially treated to supply necessary vitamins. Such
vitamins fortified seeds cost a bit more, but it is worth it.

And again, it is a bit different story if we are breeding
canaries and we have about eight birds, four males and four females to start
with. In that situation we must prepare our own mixture for the birds and some
other food as well according to requirements.